Montoya helps Ganassi team remain 'Kings of the Beach'

LONG BEACH, Calif. -- Rookie Juan Montoya dominated the last half of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach and turned the 25th annual "Roar by the Shore" into "The Snore by the Shore."

In other words, it was business as usual Sunday in the CART FedEx Championship Series' annual visit to Long Beach -- a narrow, temporary street course that doesn't lend itself to passing.

Not that anyone could have passed Montoya had there been room.

Montoya, replacing two-time CART champion Alex Zanardi in the No. 4 Target Reynard/Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing, took the lead when pole-sitter and race leader Tony Kanaan crashed on lap 46 of 85. Montoya steadily pulled away from challengers Dario Franchitti and Bryan Herta and ran away with his first CART victory in only his third career start.

Not even a late caution period, setting up a five-lap green-flag run to the finish, could help Franchitti or Herta in challenging the 23-year-old Colombian in front of a record crowd of 102,000 spectators.

"It was quite a tough race," Montoya said of his 2.805-second victory over runner-up Franchitti. "I tried to take it easy the last 10 laps. The first laps, I was overdriving the car and I said, 'Hey, take it easy,' and that's what I did and I started pulling away from Dario."

Montoya held a 3-second lead over Franchitti with 22 laps remaining in the race but stretched that lead to a sizable 11 seconds when Cristiano da Matta crashed on lap 76 and brought out a full-course caution.

"I gave it everything I had, but we didn't have the car to win today," Franchitti said. "We were lacking just a little bit compared to Tony and Juan.

"Later in the race, it was just a case of trying to keep Juan in sight but the car was not a winning car today."

Herta, who matched his 1998 finish with a third-place showing, likewise said he didn't have the car to mount a run on Montoya at the end.

"I really didn't have anything for Dario or Juan -- they were clearly much faster," Herta, who qualified third, said. "I was second, third place all weekend; it seemed like every session I was in third place.

"We probably had the third-best car."

Herta supplied one of the few highlights in the race when he passed Kanaan and outside pole-sitter Franchitti at the end of the front straightaway and led the race for one lap.

"I had a huge run on Tony and I was able to pull to the inside," Herta said. "I wasn't going to force the issue, but it looked like it was going to be all right (to pass).

"It was great while it lasted, it just didn't last nearly long enough."

Indeed. Kanaan regained the lead on the second lap and held that position until he hit the tire barrier in turn 6 on lap 46.

"I made a mistake," Kanaan said. "The track was breaking up and I just ran off line a little bit and lost it. It was tough (but) sometimes you learn the hard way.

"What happened today hurt, but I proved to myself that I can run up (front)."

Montoya was fined and placed on probation by CART last week after he was involved in a practice-session incident in Japan in which he made contact with Michael Andretti and the two drivers crashed.

"What happened last week in Japan, we just let it go by," Montoya said. "This weekend, we put it all together. Now we're just going to try to keep on winning."

Montoya's ability to rebound from last weekend's incident and disappointing finishes in his first two starts has been a pleasant surprise for team owner Ganassi.

"I knew he had the talent for the kind of drive he had today," Ganassi said. "What I didn't know was that he had the mental toughness to put those incidents behind him very quickly. You don't see that from someone his age very often.

"He put some early challenges we had in the first two races behind him very quickly and just focused on what was at hand. It's always nice to have someone who is mentally tough who has a short memory ... a short memory is good in this business."

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